In Deuteronomy, chapter eight, verse seven, it’s God’s mercies in the wilderness toward the Israelites. At the time of Israel’s entrance into Canaan, it was a land with brooks, streams, springs of water, and deep pools. Israel’s lack of water in the time of Elijah was a judgment of God. Even today, God may use the drought to humble and bring judgment to sinners.
The Israelites were to continue this paternal discipline on the part of their God when the Lord should bring them into the good land of Canaan. The land Moses describes in Deuteronomy chapter eight, verses eight through nine, contrasts with the dry unfruitful desert as a well-watered and very fruitful land, which yields support to its inhabitants. A land of water brooks, fountains, and floods which had their source in valleys and mountains. A land of wheat and barley, of the vine, fig, and pomegranate, and full of oil and honey. Lastly, a land “in which thou shalt not eat (support thyself) in scarcity, and shalt not be in want of anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose mountains thou hewest brass.”
Moses directs them to look back. It is good to remember all the ways of God’s providence and grace by which he has led us through this wilderness so that we may cheerfully serve and trust in him. Moses also directs them to look forward to Canaan will furnish us with arguments for obedience.
Moses saw in that land a type of better country. The gospel church is the New Testament Canaan, watered with the Spirit in his gifts and graces, planted with trees of righteousness, bearing fruits of righteousness. Heaven is the good land, in which nothing is lacking and where there is fulness of joy.